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Cellular

2004, Movie, PG-13, 94 mins

Cellular: Review

The bones of a lean, mean, modest thriller poke through stereotypically crowd-pleasing nonsense in this thriller about a woman who must rely on the kindness of strangers — specifically the stranger she dials at random — after she's kidnapped by ruthless killers. For Brentwood mom Jessica Martin (Kim Basinger), the day starts like any other; she puts her son (Adam Taylor Gordon) on the school bus and walks home, where things take an unwelcome turn for the extraordinary. Four armed men kick in the door, kill the maid, throw the flailing Jessica into her own SUV and imprison her in a cob-webby attic in the middle of God knows where. They want to know where her husband put "it" and they'll kill her if they don't get whatever it is; they take a sledgehammer to the ancient rotary phone that hangs tantalizingly on the wall, just to let her know they're not kidding. Her tearful protestations that they have the wrong family — they're not rich and her husband is a realtor who couldn't possibly have anything they want — are in vain. Left alone, she desperately tinkers with the entrails of the shattered telephone until — miracle of miracles — she reaches callow Ryan (Chris Evans) on his cell. Ryan, who's running an errand for his ex-girlfriend (Jessica Biel) in hopes of proving that he's mended his feckless ways, naturally assumes the call is a joke. But the fundamental decency lurking beneath his beach-bum exterior makes him take the phone to straight-arrow police officer Mooney (William H. Macy), who's about to ditch the law enforcement business and open a day spa. Several plot contrivances later, Ryan is on his own, utterly convinced of Jessica's plight and determined to do what it takes to rescue her and her family. One of two stories conceived simultaneously by veteran writer-director Larry Cohen and predicated on the illusion of intimacy fostered by telephones, this less successful companion piece to PHONE BOOTH was written by screenwriter Chris Morgan and features more vehicular stunts and low-brow gags than the delicately contrived premise can comfortably support. That's not to say it isn't entertaining, only that the scenes which rely entirely on the fragile interplay between Jessica and Ryan suggest a more compelling movie that got lost in the welter of high-speed highway recklessness. --Maitland McDonagh